Hispanic Day at WP!
William Patten celebrated our Hispanic Day as a part of Hackney’s Hispanic celebrations in June 2023. There was much excitement as the mariachi band, ‘Mariachi Loco’, performed in the playground and welcomed the children to the sounds of traditional Mexican music as they began their day. As the day went on, the mariachi band continued to play throughout the morning for all classes in small sessions. The children watched as the band performed traditional Mexican mariachi songs and they even learnt about the history of mariachi music, Mexico and practised Spanish vocabulary. Next, each class had a video call with our link school in Madrid, CEIP Josep Taradellas. These are classes whom we had already received letters from and written our pen pal letters to a few weeks ago so it was wonderful for the children to see their pen pals on screen! Later in the day, each class had a Spanish story read to them in Spanish by parent volunteers or watched a pre-recorded Spanish story. Many thanks to all the parents who came to read. The children loved listening to the stories in Spanish and were able to follow along using their Spanish language knowledge. Another highlight of the day was the delicious Hispanic lunch of paella, tortilla, patatas bravas, churros and more which the children loved eating and some of them might have even had a go at eating an Hispanic dish they haven’t tried before! In the afternoon, Years 1 - Year 6 met in the playground where the older year groups shared their Spanish books with the younger year groups. This gave them the opportunity to showcase their fantastic Spanish work in their books from their Spanish lessons this year and it also meant the younger year groups had an insight into what they will be learning in Spanish in the next academic year. And last but not least, the Reception and Nursery classes made and ate ‘pan con ‘ tomate’ using tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and bread - how adventurous and delicious! Overall, it was a wonderful day of Spanish language and Hispanic culture enrichment activities enjoyed by the children.